Note: This article has been updated to correct an inaccurate statement about county and MPC liability and to add additional quotes.
Knox County and the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission will pay $800,000 to a former MPC employee to close a federal sex discrimination lawsuit–a judgment they requested themselves.
Dee Ann Reynolds, who at the time was the only woman in management at the MPC, was fired by former executive director Mark Donaldson in June 2014. In a lawsuit filed a year later, Reynolds claimed she was fired in retaliation for helping a co-worker pursue a sex-discrimination complaint. Donaldson announced he would retire as head of the agency, charged with handling countywide land-use planning and administering zoning rules, three weeks after firing Reynolds. Several top managers have also left since then.
Reynolds’ lawsuit demanded compensation in the form of lost pay or reinstatement to her former job as finance manager, plus attorney’s fees and interest.
“This is probably an historic event,” says David Burkhalter, Reynolds’ attorney, because of the size of the judgement and the fact that the county and MPC themselves asked the court that it be entered in favor of Reynolds, “on all issues raised by her.”
An offer of judgement is different than a settlement. It’s a legal maneuver in which defendants can ask for a judgement to be entered against them to end a lawsuit, Burkhalter explained. In this case, the county and MPC offered the judgement, and Reynolds accepted it. This kind of offer puts pressure on the plaintiff, Burkhalter explained, because if a plaintiff refuses it and a jury awards less at trial, the plaintiff may then be on the hook for costs accrued by the defendant after the offer was made.
The original lawsuit named the city of Knoxville in addition to Knox County and the MPC, an inter-governmental agency serving both the city and county which receives funding from both. The city was later dropped as a defendant, but Knox County was not. The lawsuit alleged that the county was a joint employer with MPC based on how Reynolds was paid and insured.
The $800,000 will be paid by the Tennessee Municipal League on behalf of the MPC and the county, because MPC has an insurance policy for employment claims through the league pool, says Knox County communications director Michael Grider. After Knox County was sued in the case, it brought a third party complaint against the pool to require it to provide a defense and indemnity for Knox County, which had no part in the decision to fire Reynolds.
The municipal league pool claims adjuster made the decision to offer the judgment, Grider says. The pool will also cover an additional $200,000 in attorney fees for MPC and the county.
Essentially, the lawsuit claimed Reynolds was fired for helping Elizabeth Albertson, who still works at MPC, file a sexual discrimination complaint in 2013 alleging she was passed over in favor of men, denied resources needed to do her job, refused to provide her the administrative support received by male co-workers, asked her to perform secretarial duties, and paid her less than her male counterparts. Albertson had approached Reynolds, as the only woman in management, to guide her through the process. When Donaldson and others in management dismissed the issues and failed to respond, the lawsuit stated, Reynolds persisted and eventually lost her job for alleged “insubordination.”
Reynolds now works part-time in her field. “When she was fired, they lost an excellent employee… No amount of money can pay her for what she went through,” Burkhalter says. “We’re hopeful this order will erase that black mark.”
Reynolds adds, “I only agreed to that amount because it would restore my name and reputation, by prevailing in my case, and allow me to move forward.”
Burkhalter added that he hopes the judgement sets a new precedent for what is considered acceptable behavior by Knox County employers. “Ms. Reynolds is hopeful that this judgment will send a message to all employers to take discrimination complaints seriously and not to retaliate against their employees,” he wrote in a prepared statement.
S. Heather Duncan has won numerous awards for her feature writing and coverage of the environment, government, education, business and local history during her 15-year reporting career. Originally from Western North Carolina, Heather has worked for Radio Free Europe, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London, and several daily newspapers. Heather spent almost a dozen years at The Telegraph in Macon, Ga., where she spent most of her time covering the environment or writing project-investigations that provoked changes such as new laws related to day care and the protection of environmentally-sensitive lands. You can reach Heather at heather@knoxmercury.com
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